Multipurpose Stabilized Water Board for Recreational Use

ABSTRACT

This invention provides for a new design of recreational water boards that are significantly more stable than traditional boards in the class of standup paddle boards, windsurfing boards, and surf boards. Higher stability is achieved by shifting the primary buoyancy of the board to the “rail hulls” located on each side of the board deck creating a tunnel-hull effect. This provides a unique ability to make the board more stable for the average or beginner rider. This new design is intended to be a multipurpose platform allowing the rider to use as a standup paddle board, windsurf board, and surf board. In addition because the design is very stable it can be configured with a removable seat to allow the rider to paddle while seated. The increased stability provided by the tunnel hull effect also eliminates the need for a fixed rudder or fin to generate directional stability.

REFERENCES CITED

U.S. Patent Documents 6,871,608 March 2005 Rosen 114/61 5,592,892 January 1997 Kerckhoff 114/39 7,370,593 May 2008 Horais 114/39 5,896,825 April 1999 Trefethen 114/39 7,793,604 September 2010 Keller 114/39 5,514,017 May 1996 Chimiak 441/65 8,262,425 September 2012 Jones 441/74 8,460,042 June 2013 Edison 441/74 8,166,898 May 2012 Chen 114/39 7,892,058 February 2011 Ethecopar 441/74 7,856,935 December 2010 Yagi 114/39

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to personal watercraft that are powered by hand held paddles, windsurf sails, kite board sails, or waves as in surfing. The invention came about by trying to design a more stable personal watercraft for the beginner and average user but still have sufficient performance for advanced riders. The increased stability facilitates the addition of a removable seat. Many riders get fatigued during prolonged standing, having a seat provides for relief as well as comfort during the use of the water board. We anticipate that any riders will chose to sit the entire time on the board. The popularity of standup paddle boarding has increased dramatically over the last couple of years but has generally been limited to persons with reasonable athletic ability to manage or control the stability of the board while standing and paddling in rough water. Our board will enable a more persons with average or less athletic ability to use the board.

The new board can range from 8 feet to as much as 14 feet depending on desired performance. It is fabricated using a variety of materials and processes including but not limited to composite materials (glass, Kevlar, carbon mixed with epoxy or polyester resins) layered over foam or honeycomb cores, rotational molded plastics, and injection molding.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

This invention provides for a new design of recreational water boards that are significantly more stable than traditional boards in the class of standup paddle boards, windsurfing boards, and surf boards. Higher stability is achieved by shifting the primary buoyancy of the board to the rail hulls located on each side of the board deck creating a tunnel-hull effect. This provides a unique ability to make the board more stable for the average or beginner rider. Traditional stand on recreational water boards (standup paddle boards, wind surf boards, and surf boards) have all utilized a basic mono hull design with the main difference being the thickness, length, and curvature of the outer profile to achieve the desired buoyancy and performance level. When standing on said board, the feet are generally positioned outside the effective center of buoyancy (lift), which generally renders the board unstable for the beginner or average rider. The majority of buoyancy of our design is positioned outside of the rider's feet or center of mass, thus providing increased stability. This new design is intended to be a multipurpose platform allowing the rider to use as a standup paddle board, windsurf board, and surf board. In addition because the design is very stable it can be configured with a removable seat to allow the rider to paddle while seated. The fifth option provided by our new design allows the rider to attach a pre-configured seat with external outriggers and an anchor point/control system to facilitate the use of common kite board sailing gear to power the multipurpose recreational water board. The increased stability provided by the tunnel hull effect also eliminates the need for a fixed rudder or fin to generate directional stability. This allows the watercraft to track in very shallow waters such as rivers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts the overall design of our multipurpose stabilized water board for recreational use.

FIG. 2 illustrates the primary difference between our new design, which is tunnel-hull like in configuration as compared to the cross-section of standard recreational water boards.

FIG. 3 depicts the multiple attachment locations on our new design. These attachment locations enable multipurpose functionality.

FIG. 4 illustrates attachment locations that facilitate standard windsurfer functionality.

FIG. 5 depicts the new design with removable and adjustable outriggers. The outriggers are used to provide additional stability.

FIG. 6 depicts our new design with a removable chair. This enables the sitdown paddle board functionality.

FIG. 7 depicts our new design with the sit-down kite board sail and control system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The current invention provides a new multipurpose recreational water board that is significantly more stable than traditional boards in the class of standup paddle boards, windsurfing boards, and surf boards. The overall design is shown in FIG. 1.

How Increased Stability is Achieved:

The increased stability is achieved by shifting the primary buoyancy of the board to the outer sides creating a tunnel-hull effect. A cross-sectional comparison of our new design to a standard water board design is shown in FIG. 2. Our design redistributes the board's buoyancy to each edge of the board outside of the rider's feet position. This creates a moment arm from the board's center of gravity that is larger then the moment arm between the board's center of gravity and the person's body center-to-foot lateral moment arm. When the majority of the buoyancy of the board is outside the location of a person's distributed mass center then increased stability is achieved. Our new design has similar overall volume to traditional boards, and therefore provides the same load capacity. The overall length, width, and height of the board is varied to provide the desired performance for the user. More stability can be achieved by increasing the width of the board (and hence position of the rail hulls) as well as the amount of rail hull volume (buoyancy).

This new configuration eliminates the need for a rudder or fin, provides for improved directional stability while paddling and. This enables the water board to be used in extremely shallow water that would limit traditional paddleboards due to fin/rudder depth and damage potential. The water flowing through the tunnel coupled with the pressure boundary along the bottom of the rail hull keel enables this improved directional stability.

How Multipurpose Use is Achieved:

Our new design is intended for multipurpose use. In its basic configuration as shown in FIG. 1 can function as a standup paddle board or surf board. The increased stability provided with our design will enable a wider range of persons with lesser athletic ability to use the standup paddle board. It will also improve control in rough water when used as a standup paddle board and will make standing up easier for beginner surfers.

The new design is also constructed with a variety of general attachment points as shown in FIG. 3. This allows the user to attach multifunctional hardware accessories to configure the water board for various recreational and sport. FIG. 4 shows the windsurfer configuration.

The new design can be configured with external floatation as shown in FIG. 5. This provides additional stability for the standup paddle board option. The external floatation is moveable fore and aft to allow the user to precisely tune the desired level of increased stability and fore and aft balance. This configuration also provides increased stability for the beginner windsurfer.

The new design can be configured with removable seats. The seat can also be multifunctional for use as a cooler, live bait well, fish well, dry storage compartment, solar and conventional battery and control electronics compartment for alternate propulsion systems. Some of these options are shown in FIG. 6.

The new design can be configured with sit-down kit board sail and control system. It will also incorporate steerable rudders for added control. This multipurpose option is shown in FIG. 7. 

The invention claimed is: 1) Better stability in a personal water board due to moving the maximum buoyancy of the board outward as depicted in FIG.
 1. 2) Because of claim 1, a personal water board that is easier to learn ride and control as a standup paddle board. 3) Because of claim 1, a personal water board that is able enough to mount a removable seat for rider comfort. 4) Because of claims 1 and 3, a personal water board that can utilize standard kayak paddles or standup paddle board paddles. 5) A multipurpose personal water board or watercraft has been invented 6) Because of claim 5 the personal water board can be configured to accept standard windsurfing sailing hardware. Thus providing the rider the ability to use the water board as a standard windsurfing board. The added stability of claim 1 makes it easier to learn this difficult task. 7) Because of claim 1 the board can be used as a standard surf board. The added stability of claim 1 makes it easier to learn this difficult task. 8) Because of claim 5 the personal water craft can be configured with removable outriggers to provide additional stability when desired. 9) Because of claim 5 the personal water board can be configured to create a whole new class of personal sailing craft by attaching a sit down kite board sail and control system coupled with removable outriggers for extra stability needed to handle the sailing moments created from flying the standard kite board sails. 10) The sit down kite board control system is also claimed within this new invention. 11) Because of claim 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7 our invention enables a broader market of people to use the board. Less athletic skill is required because of the improved stability of the personal water board. 12) The tunnel-hull configuration provides for rudderless or finless tracking, enabling use of the personal water board in shallow waters (rivers). This eliminates the encumbrance of fin breakage or damage. 